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I haven't seen the Northern Lights. But, I do know that Bettles is probably your best bet and Chena Hot Springs is probably almost as good a bet. Chena would be less expensive and effort to get to. Both of these are a bit north of Fairbanks. Bettles would involve a small plane just to get there. You basically just want a clear night(no moon is better), away from all city light and other light sources as possible, and lots of aurora activity. If you do Bettles, I think you can dogsled there and also take a plane tour over the Arctic Circle.

I am not 100% sure, but I think last year was supposed to be a really bad year. But, perhaps it was this next year coming up. I think it is in some 7 year cycle and every 7 years it is very low.

The only real accurate predictions are a 2-4 days ahead of time(I think).

Again, I haven't done any of this. Just something I would like to do. It seems the more I read about it, the less that science seems to know about it.